Dovetail Connections

Q: What do a white bird and construction connections have in common?

A: Dovetails!

As mentioned in our masonry tie lesson, there are different types of anchors that tie the brick to the building.

Here's a dovetail masonry anchor.

Dovetail refers to the shape.  A dove is a bird- you can see the shape of its tail here:

You can see these concrete inserts are shaped like a dove's tail.

The dovetail insert receives a variety of different anchors. 

 

Wood Dovetails!

Dovetail joints have been used for thousands of years in wood construction.  Read more about dovetail joinery here.

Dovetail joints were the only way to connect pieces of wood before the invention of modern steel fasteners and adhesives.

 

Be sure to check out this lesson about different parts of brick cavity walls.  It's a great review for this lesson and shows how these dovetail joints are used in an assembly.

 

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